But (this is where your inquiry about media is so important), how does it happen that the story of health risks is so central? Where are the media on Michael Pollan’s account of food reform, for instance, which draws not just on health but on deeper aspects of the human spirit, the thick moral connectedness of family relationships, and a sense of wonder about nature? You point out here that our media prefer tales of good and evil to any nuanced account. How would that change?

And it’s not that the underlying moral agenda necessarily nullifies the basic behavior being urged. For example, I feel absolutely comfortable and “evidence-based” — and not coerced — when I choose to reduce salt in my diet, avoid the abuse of alcohol, and avoid caffeine use that might lead to sleep disorders.

But you are so right, Phil, about “good vs. bad” moral narratives that are often how culture packages various recommended health behaviors. You are told that need to do something that might reduce your risk for heart disease, not only because that might improve the quality of your life and the people in your social networks, but because that is what moral and decent people do, and because it has the promise of transforming you from a bad overweight person to a good, non-overweight person.

In sociology, we talk a lot about the activities of so-called “moral entrepreneurs” who embed all sorts of recommendations and prohibitions within larger moral narratives that features precisely the theme you describe, Phil — “somebody against somebody in the name of health:”

So often, their narrative conjures an imagined and implied moral chasm between those who are good and wholesome and moral and those who are bad and slothful and immoral.

I suppose the problem is that even the most sane recommended behavior — when cloaked in a scolding, Puritancal narrative — often stimulates resistance from people who sense and reject the mixture of morality and menu. The importance of the behavior can get lost and even marginalized when embedded in an artifically polarized morality tale pitting salt vs. no-salt.

I couldnt agree more that the media and culture needs to move beyond obsessive self-inspection and moral flagellation toward the basic concept of health.

But what a leap that will be for a media and culture that absolutely laps up tales of good vs, evil, regardless of how much nuance and important information those tales obscure.

Best,

Steve